The Unfailing Light

There had been more than two times as many imperial guards as there were wizards, and yet the wizards seemed to be holding their own. Until the Koldun lost his concentration. The last of the magic protections ended and the Great Hall was flooded with everything the wizards had been keeping out. Their ceremony had attracted all sorts of spectral attention, and not all of it had been beneficent. Which made perfect sense. A Dark Court ritual would of course attract the darkest of spirits.

I saw and felt the bone-chilling cold light sweeping past me as it rushed toward the Koldun. Alix tumbled out of the way. I caught a glimpse of the damage she had done to the Koldun before the angry spirits surrounded him. They attacked him much like a swarm of angry bees. It was a horrible death. Even if he had been a horrible man.

I repressed a shudder as I hurried over to Alix. I reached for the ribbon around her neck, to help her change back, but she growled at me. Her fur was matted with blood. "Let me help you, Alix."

With her fangs still bared, she pushed past me and ran for the door. It occurred to me that perhaps she did not want to transform in front of everyone. I hoped she could return to Smolny safely.

There was only one thing left for me to concentrate on: George and Danilo's duel. They were still at it in the room outside the Great Hall, throwing balls of energy at each other as well as trading sword blows. I ran to the doorway, but felt someone approaching behind me.

"Katiya, what the devil are you doing here?" It was Petya. Behind him was Nicholas Alexandrovich.

"Trying to save the grand duke. Let go of me. I have to help him."

The tsarevitch shook his head and chuckled. "Georgi's doing just fine on his own, Duchess."

A fireball exploded behind the Montenegrin crown prince. He ducked and almost lost his right ear to George's sword.

"Enough of this," Danilo snarled. From his breast pocket he pulled out a revolver.

I gasped. "Danilo, no!" I pushed out of my brother's arms into the hall, flinging myself in front of George. I felt sharp pains in my head as I hurtled through the magic barrier.

"Katiya, wait!" George shouted. He mumbled something in Greek as I heard a shot.

The room filled with gun smoke. Danilo's revolver had misfired. He dropped the weapon to the ground as he searched for a way to escape in the haze.

George's arm was around my waist, pulling me closer to him, and I felt his warm lips pressed against my ear. "Go back to your brother, Katiya. I can't worry about you right now."

Mon Dieu. There were so many things I wanted to say to the arrogant grand duke, but there wasn't time. He let go of me as several men rushed into the room from all directions. I could not find Petya or the tsarevitch in the confusion.

My arms were grabbed from behind by two very strong hands. "Oh no, Duchess. You are coming with us." Sucre had found me.

"How did you get away from the guards?" I asked. I looked around, hoping Petya was unharmed and would realize that I needed his help.

Sucre just laughed. "Do not worry your little head about such things. We have business to finish."

"You are insane. Let me go."

I struggled, but his fingers dug more deeply into my arms. "Without the Koldun, we are not obligated to protect the tsar any longer," he said. "Konstantin will be raised with your help, little necromancer. And not so we may put an end to him."

The Koldun hadn't been part of the true plot, then. He'd really believed he was helping to destroy the lich tsar. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to tell Alix the truth.

Sucre pulled me into a smaller chamber off of the Great Hall. Here sat the golden throne I had seen in the Crimea. The sight of the throne filled me with dread. "No ..." I tried to pull back from the wizard but he wouldn't let go.

"Oh yes, Duchess," Sucre said. His grin was wicked. "You are going to help us find the lich tsar. And then you're going to help him return to us."

"I won't help you." I looked all around the room, looking for doors, weapons, anything. I needed to get back to help George. Even if he didn't need, or want, my help.

I heard the door behind us close and the bolt slide into place. Danilo appeared. He was in on the plot as well. He smiled as he walked around me. "I will finish dealing with your grand duke later. After you have helped us raise the lich tsar."

"We knew you wouldn't help willingly, Duchess," Sucre said. "But we know you wouldn't want anything to happen to your Smolny friend, now, would you?"

The crown prince pushed the throne around and I saw Alix, back in her human shape and wearing a dirty Smolny uniform. She was gagged and tied to the throne. Her eye was blackened where one of the wizards had hit her. Sucre smiled a nasty smile as he showed me Alix's ribbon and tucked it away in his coat pocket. My heart sank.

"You don't want anything else to happen to the Hessian princess, do you?" Sucre asked. "I will cut the bitch's throat in a heartbeat if you do not help us."

"Why?" I asked Danilo. "Why would you want to bring Konstantin back?"

The crown prince's face was like a mask. "Thanks to the cursed talisman we used for my ascension, I am now bound to Konstantin. If I give him what he wants, I will be free."

"He wants to kill the tsar, Danilo. You can't let that happen."

The crown prince almost looked apologetic. "If I do not, he will end up killing me. Or worse, possessing me."

The thought of being bound by blood to the lich tsar in the crown prince's body made me physically ill. "Surely there is another way."

"We've run out of options, Duchess," Sucre said. "Help us raise the lich tsar, or the German princess will die."

I could not allow them to sacrifice Alix. "What do you wish me to do?" I whispered.

The princess's eyes grew wide and she struggled against her ropes. Sucre struck her with a violent blow to her cheek. She grew very still, but I could see the tears welling up in her eyes as she fought against the pain.

My fists were shaking. I could feel fury rising inside of me. I wanted to let the cold light loose and do something horrible to these men. They had no right to hurt us. "Let her go, and I will help you."

Danilo laughed. "You must be joking, Katerina."

"I am not." I fought to stop trembling. I fought to keep my fears down and looked him coolly in the eye. He wanted a cold-blooded necromancer, and that was what I would be. "Let Alix go, or I won't cooperate."

Sucre swore in French, and nodded to the crown prince. "We don't need her anymore with the Koldun dead. Let her loose."

Danilo had the sense to look frightened. "But she's a wolf."

"Not without the ribbon, she's not. Let her go. We need the necromancer more."

Alix glared at me. She was still in too much of a daze from the blow to her head to hurt either Danilo or Sucre. Staggering, she stood up from the throne and somehow managed to lunge for me. I held my arms out to catch her. "Katerina Alexandrovna," she hissed. "I would rather die than see you do this."

"See to the grand duke. And please find my brother."

I could have sworn I heard her growl as she ran past me into the Great Hall. I did not look back at her. Instead, I held Sucre's gaze, and summoned all the cold-light power I could. It had helped to kill the Koldun. Would it work again?

"Tsk, tsk," Sucre said, shaking his head at me. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Duchess. The Koldun was killed not by you but by the dark spirits he unleashed. Don't waste your precious powers trying to fight me." He took a step closer and grabbed my hands, bruising them with his force. "It won't work."

The fae cook could read my mind. I closed my eyes. "Tell me what you want me to do, so I can leave."

Sucre laughed. "Of course. If you would be so kind, Monsieur," he said, holding out his hand. Papus appeared from the shadowy corner of the room. He pulled a faded scroll from the inside pocket of his vest and handed it to Sucre. It was the scroll he had retrieved from the cave in Massandra. He'd betrayed George and the Order all along.

Papus quickly drew a magic circle around the three of us, with the throne in the center.

I was now effectively cut off from anyone's help. There was no way the grand duke could hear my thoughts across the magic barrier.

"What do you hope to gain by raising the lich tsar? He will destroy us all."

Danilo shook his head and smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "He will be completely under my control. I have the talisman." He pulled a necklace from under his shirt and showed me the Talisman of Isis.

"You took it from the Koldun's staff?" I gasped.

"If I hadn't, the spirits would have taken it themselves. And what kind of anarchy would that have created?"

I shook my head. "You are insane."

"You do wound me, Duchess." Gripping me roughly by the shoulders, he swung me around so that I was standing opposite him and Sucre. We made a triangle around the throne.

"If only that were true," I muttered. His eyebrow rose slightly, but he did not reply.

Sucre unrolled the parchment scroll and began to read the ancient Greek text. When he paused, Danilo and I were to repeat his words. I could make out only some of the phrases he was chanting. "Open the gate" ... "return to the light" ...

The two wizards focused their attentions on the throne, as if that was where they expected the lich tsar to appear. Of course. The throne was some sort of gateway to the cold-light realm, the Graylands, where Konstantin was imprisoned. I could not allow him to return to our world. Sucre and Danilo were fools if they thought they were strong enough to control him.

I felt the temperature drop drastically in the chamber. I could see Sucre's breath as he chanted. I could feel the cold light pulling, tugging me toward the throne. Was this supposed to be happening?

The light was beginning to swirl over the seat of the throne. Very soon, the lich tsar would appear in that seat. My heart pounded with fear.

I couldn't do this. Konstantin could not be allowed to leave the Graylands. I saw the carvings along the curve of the back of the throne and realized what I had to do.

I stopped chanting the words that Sucre was reading. Instead, I began to focus on the carved words. "The path to the light travels straight through the darkness," I muttered. "The path to the light travels straight through the darkness," I repeated, louder still.

I felt another pull within my belly. The cold light inside me wanted to go, was eager even. I knew I'd probably never be able to return. But with me trapped in the Graylands Konstantin would be trapped as well. I swallowed the fear that was in my throat and read the inscription a third time. The throne seemed to hum with its immense power.

Before Danilo and Sucre could realize what I had planned, I rushed forward and threw myself into the seat. The room began to spin, and I felt the sickening cold and clammy feeling I'd experienced in the caves of Massandra. I was gone before the wizards knew what I had done.